I recently watch MGS4 gameplay demo that was debuted during E3 2007. In this demo you can see a lot of old school plus new stuff, such as the Octocamo that automatically changes the camo to fit the surroundings, the ability to play the entire game in first person view mode, play dead, control the tiny Metal Gear Mk II as well as new erm … “ways” to knock your enemies out cold.

After seeing the demo, I seriously can’t wait for this game to come out. Overall the graphics on the demo looked fantastic except for a few things. For one thing the framerate sometimes dip to below 30+ and the shadow looks blocky (something similar to Battlefield 2 shadow). Since this isn’t the final build and the game isn’t coming out until March 2008, Kojima Production still have plenty of time to polish up the game.

My “Playstation 3″ fund has already started and will probably grab the system along with MGS4 when it’s released.

I’m sure most of you MGS fans would have seen the earlier trailer which shows a lengthy cutscene sequence as well as Raiden fighting with Vamp at the end of it. During that trailer, there’s a scene that shows Snake pointing a gun through his mouth, like he wanted to end his life. That particular scene does rise a bit of concern, like why would he do that? (after all big boss was the one who started the whole mess). As a gamer that thinks too much, I would like to present my point of view of a “possible” reason. I have included pictures to further illustrate that “possibility“.

He just have to grab that part ..

Who could resist such wonderful magazine!???

His butt sure attracts the enemy …

The new “technique” to knock guys out cold. This is just getting weirder …

I’m … too lost for words … really … Snake … that’s ….

After seeing the pictures above, I’m sure you will understand why I think he would want to end his life. I know I would.

If you haven’t seen the demo gameplay, here’s your chance.

Easy now fellas

I created two new sigs, with Link being the latest one. Trying out new styles compared to the previous brush effects which I always used.

Metal Gear Solid 4 – Old Snake

Legend of Zelda – Link

Enjoy

Review Type : Extended Play

If you notice, I didn’t do any first impression reviews on MPO like the other games. Reason is because MPO has a new element which I feel I should explore first. A first impression review wouldn’t be fair … and I was right.

I wouldn’t go into detail about the storyline but to put it simply, it’s the missing “link” between Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear. This game will explain what happen between those two time-line and how Outer Heaven was created. You still play as Naked Snake (Big Boss) and the previous characters have also made their return, but not in the old fashion way.

In Metal Gear Solid 3, you had the fun of playing with different camouflage costumes and eating wild animals to replenish your stamina. In Portable Ops, you will have the fun of recruiting your own army. Just simply put his light out, drag him to the truck and voila! After a while that soldier will be in your team. I was feeling a bit uneasy about the recruitment system at first but now, it feels like second nature. You can assign those you captured to a few sections such as sneaking, spies, technician, medics or just independent group. Sneaking is your regular MGS infiltration, spies will give you reports on anything that happens in an area, medics will produce items such as medic kits and ration while technician will produce bullets and other tech gears.

Another thing you will notice in MGSPO, is the free roam ‘mission’ style which wasn’t present in any of the previous Metal Gear games. You get to choose which area you want to complete first and it can be in any order. Specific marked areas will lead you back to the main storyline while other areas allows you obtain weapons, items or recruit soldiers.

Now that we are done with new elements of MPO, let’s go through the difference between this version and other MGS games.

• No 3D cutscenes, replaced by cool illustration
• Voice act only during illustration, most of the time are text based
• A member can only carry 4 items at a time, with a maximum item of 16 (4 members in a squad)
• Can’t save during mission, only during briefing room
• Hints during codec conversation are a lot less compared to previous MGS games

In terms of graphical presentation, MPO looks good overall with a few flaws. The amount of detail featured on Snake is rich but the environment and other soldier models feels a bit bland. The lack of anti-aliasing really shows the ‘jaggies’. The game sometime lags but overall its smooth. Controls will take a bit to get used to. Voice act and music are top notch as what you can expect from a MGS game. No complains about that.

Closing comment : This is definitely a must have for those fans of Metal Gear series. If you are a newcomer and wanting to get into the series, I would recommend you to go play the previous series first before touching this one to truly enjoy the full glory of Metal Gear. Missing 3D cutscenes and stylish codec conversations are the few shortcomings of MPO but the overall gameplay and storyline definitely makes up for it. With the complete saga of Metal Gear series, we are all ready to face Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots.

This is the latest sig I just whipped up. It features Naked Snake (Big Boss) from Metal Gear Solid 3. I created the background base on the forest enviroment which is heavily featured in the game. Hope you guys like it. Cheers!

Nawp I’m not into slaughtering foxes for pleasure if that’s what you are thinking. I’m referring to the virus which was injected into Solid Snake (MGS) during Shadow Moses. To be honest, I totally forgot all about FoxDie until I replayed MGS1 on ps2. FoxDie wasn’t mention at all in MGS2 since most of the main parts is focused on an idiot … I mean Raiden. However Snake did show a bit of fatigue early in the “Plant” mission. Probably the virus is slowly killing him although it’s not fatal.

After replaying MGS1, few questions keep popping out of my head. “What actually happen to FoxDie after MGS1?”. “Since Ocelot is using Liquid’s arm, wouldn’t he be infected with FoxDie?” and finally “How did Solid Snake manage to survive for so long although the virus has killed a lot of people (Darpa Chief, President Baker of Armstech, Liquid Snake). I may have overlooked some of the answers for the questions above but hopefully in MGS4, all the loose puzzles will be in place. All I know is that, in MGS4 Snake only has 6 months to survive (as mentioned by Naomi in E306 trailer). Will this be the absolute end of Solid Snake? Guess we have to wait until the game is out to find out.